


Through Her Eyes

by melancholicInspiration



Series: Portal Story [1]
Category: Portal (Video Game)
Genre: Canon Universe, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-03-20
Updated: 2014-08-17
Packaged: 2018-01-16 10:13:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 5,185
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1343749
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/melancholicInspiration/pseuds/melancholicInspiration
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The events of Portal as seen and felt by Chell as she tries to remember who she is while escaping from GLaDOS' control.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Aperture Science Wake Up Call

**Author's Note:**

> There will not be much dialogue from Chell, mostly focusing on her thoughts and feelings to what she sees and hears from GLaDOS. I interpret her being mute as partially attributed to her stubbornness to not give in to GLaDOS and perhaps a bit of amnesia from being kept in stasis so long.

When she woke up in the testing facility, a voice told her that she was kept in what was referred to as a “stasis” - where her body was unconscious but still retaining primary functions to keep her alive during that period. Looking around she saw that the room around was surrounded by glass walls, a timer counting down to something that she didn't initially know what would happen when it got to zero but still filled her with an omnious feeling, a small cocoon shaped bed, a toilet and a table holding various items. The small radio playing the same song over and over again made her smile, it was oddly relaxing to hear and distracted her until a sharp sound and a blue oval to the other parts of the room opened. It must be one of those “Portals” that the voice mentioned earlier, but Chell still wondered if it was safe to go through. After a slightly emphatic prompting from what seemed to be the disembodied voice, she passed through and was perhaps foolishly surprised to find that she was uninjured. Chell looked back through the portals to see a reflection of herself and she just stared.

_Is this what I really look like?_ She wondered quietly looking at her dark hair tied up into a ponytail, her dark eyes that almost seemed to match her hair and a shade or two deeper than tan skin. The orange jumpsuit, similar to prison garb, contrasted horribly with her skin and it began to hurt her eyes staring at it for too long. The reflection showed how skinny and lithe her body was, though she saw herself as having more substance than that. It took a while but after the contemplative staring, she ignored the portals and made her way through the door. It was a circular door with a blue circle dead centre, the line in between two halves sliding away with ease as she approached it.

Walking into the next room she found a rather big circular red button, which dots along the floor and wall that lead to the next door. A vault attached to the ceiling opened and deposited a rather heavy looking box in between the button and the door. Cautiously she approached the box, the voice calling it an “Aperture Science Weighted Storage Cube”, and picked it up to put it on the button. Maybe Chell shouldn't be surprised when nothing exploded or attempted to harm her but she still was when the only thing that happened was the door sliding away with a smooth metallic sound. Down the white hallway passed the door was a circular platform, some kind of elevator, and before that was what looked like an energy field floating around in front of it.

**“Please proceed into the chamber-lock after completing each test. First, however, note the incandescent particle field across the exit. This Aperture Science Material Emancipation Grill will vaporize any unauthorized equipment that passes through it – for instance, the Aperture Science Weighted Storage Cube.”** The disembodied voice droned as she inspected the particle field.

Chell walked forward but still stopped to inspect the oddity that was that particle field across the exit. It didn't look terribly dangerous, but being in this place with the walls that reminded her of a hospital and the feeling like something terrible happened that she didn't know about, made her unsure of what exactly it did. She stuck the ends of her fingers into the particle field and for a brief moment, it felt almost as if something was tickling her skin. It wasn't long after that that the elevator came down to take her up to the next level, but her mind was still on that bizarre particle field. The doors opened and she jumped into it, marvelling at how technologically advanced this entire place seemed to be. Was she somehow in the future? What year was it anyways?


	2. Aperture Science List of Really Bizarre Names for Things That Don't Need Such a Long Name

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The first batch of test chambers and the introduction of the bizarre habit Aperture has of creating really descriptive and weird names for the objects found in the game.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Most of the chapters will follow a standard plan of going through the test chambers as Chell experiences them. If you haven't played Portal you're in luck! Though you really should play the game anyways. GLaDOS' lines are taken directly from the game and can also be found here, if anyone is interested in reading that: http://theportalwiki.com/wiki/GLaDOS_voice_lines

The ride in the elevator was surprisingly short and she stepped out into the hall, noting an odd absence of the particle field across the entrance. Perhaps it was only across the exits, but that made her wonder why exactly that was. Was there a long case of people trying to smuggle objects out through the elevators? As she wondered this, a white and black neon sign flashed on and caught her attention showing her that this was test chamber 01. Turning the corner, the hall seemed to end in a bigger room but there were nothing like a staircase to lead her down. Getting the hint that she was just supposed to drop down she did, thankfully landing rather gracefully on the floor below. During her earlier assessment of what she physically looked like, she noticed an odd contraption attached to her calf and going down to rest on her feet. There were boots that mainly covered her knees down and they were as disturbingly white as the walls around her. It was odder still, she never remembered getting anything like those and it certainly didn't look like something she could purchase at a store. Did someone else put them on her?

There was a slight beeping noise over the intercom followed by: **“Please place the Weighted Storage Cube on the Fifteen Hundred Megawatt Aperture Science Heavy Duty Super-Colliding Super Button.”**

The long complicated name for such a simple object made Chell almost laugh and roll her eyes, but she figured out the way the portals were moving and waited for it to let her go through and take the Cube. It took a bit more but she finally made it back around so she could place the Cube on the button.

**“Perfect. Please move quickly to the chamberlock, as the effects of prolonged exposure to the Button are not part of this test.”**

Chell stared back at the button, wondering what on earth would happen if she did stay near the button for too long. Would the disembodied computer voice harm her somehow? Perhaps the button was dangerous, in which she would be careful to avoid it. However, she knew there was no way to test if it was other than to stay near the button. She was already at the door with the check mark beside it and went ahead to the elevator.

 

**“Please be advised that a noticeable taste of blood is not part of any test protocol but is an unintended side effect of the Aperture Science Material Emancipation Grill, which may, in semi-rare cases, emancipate dental fillings, crowns, tooth enamel, and teeth.”**

At this Chell began worried about sticking her hand in the Grill earlier and looked down at her hand. It looked as normal as ever and flexing the muscles proved that there was nothing wrong. She moved her mouth around as well, subconsciously tasting for blood, and almost let a sigh of relief escaped that she was not missing any teeth or tasted blood.

The door leading to the test chamber proper opened soon after the voice gave its warning and Chell walked through, looking over behind a hole in the wall at a bizarre gun on an oscillating stand. Every time it turned though, it shot a portal at a space in the wall and she got the idea that maybe she was supposed to grab the gun. Making her way over to the gun in question, she stared at it contemplatively for a few moments before picking it up and then the familiar beeping alerted her to the voice that was about to speak.

**“Very good! You are now in possession of the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device. With it, you can create your own portals. These intra-dimensional gates have proven to be completely safe. The Device, however, has not. Do not touch the operational end of The Device. Do not look directly at the operational end of The Device. Do not submerge The Device in liquid, even partially. Most importantly, under no circumstances should you (static).”**

Those were a lot of rules and she continued to stare at the gun in her hands as the voice intoned boring sounding instructions on what not to do with the Device. It was white, like everything else, but had black underpinning and a black handlebar under which her hand seemed to fit perfectly. There was a circle on the top edge of it, that seemed to glow a relaxing blue color and near the far edge of it seemed to be a pair of pincers that were almost sharpened to a point. Chell looked around and aimed a portal directly in front of her and walked through with none of the hesitation that she had earlier about entering and exiting the portals. The Emancipation Grill lay a few feet ahead of her, along with the elevator to take her to the next chamber, and she wondered what would happen to the gun if she took it along with her. She needed to take the gun out of this room however, so she decided to chance it. Walking through the particle field proved to be easy, the gun only slightly seizing in her grip but otherwise undamaged.

 

The next chamber was almost laughably easy, as she navigated through the blue and orange portals to get to the chamberlock. It seemed that these tests were meant to just get her used to using the portal guns, but it almost made her wonder if the tests would get any more difficult or if it would continue being this easy. When Chell was in front of the chamberlock, the familiar voice droned again.

**“Well done! Remember: The Aperture Science Bring Your Daughter to Work Day is the perfect time to have her tested.”**

Chell knew that she was in no place to have a daughter of her own, but she would definitely have some reservations about bringing a young child here. Mainly because this place definitely seemed bizarre and creepy. If she, a grown woman, was scared of whatever was in this place, then a child would definitely fare no better. Did the Aperture Science employees actually bring their daughters to this place? She dreaded the answer she knew she wouldn't get.

Test chamber 04 was rather boring, another one of the put-the-box-on-the-button tests. She eyed the vault carefully, waiting for it to drop the cube into what she later saw was a smaller square room with a portal-able floor. Easy. She aimed the portal at the floor which the cube was on, bringing it up to her level and nudged it into place on the button.

**“As a part of a required test protocol, we will not monitor the next test chamber. You will be entirely on your own. Good luck.”**

Chell had an odd feeling that even though the voice said that, that it was somehow lying to her. She didn't really have time to worry about a computer lying to her, as it didn't seem to be harming her in any way, as she moved on to the next testing room.

Heading into the chamber, she immediately saw two buttons in front of her. That meant two cubes. Looking up, she saw two platforms, one with an orange portal in front of it, the other with a cube near the wall. To a far edge of the room was a pit similar to the one in the earlier test chamber and when she moved over to it, she saw the missing cube she needed. Quickly, Chell shot a blue portal into the floor and grabbed the cube, heading through the portal link. On the other side, she dropped the cube to the main floor and shot another portal to get the other one. Putting the cubes on the respective switches proved to be an easy task. It was still a moderate surprise when the door that opened didn't lead to the chamberlock; Chell was getting used to the direct route of the tests leading to the exit when she finished them. Maybe that was the reason for this next bit.

**“As a part of a required test protocol, our previous statement suggesting that we would not monitor this chamber was an outright fabrication.”**

Chell knew it. She was right all along that the computer was lying to her. But it seemed to be programmed to do that. Maybe whoever it was controlling it made it that way? Looking above the glass ceiling, she could see an orange portal open up, and she fired her blue portal to let her travel through and get to the chamberlock.

**“Good job! As a part of a required test protocol, we will stop enhancing the truth in three, two, one [static].”**


	3. Aperture Science Touch This Thing And You Will Die (Probably)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The tests are beginning to get more dangerous for Chell and she wonders who exactly is controlling this computer talking to her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chell, at this point, would not be aware what exactly happened to the rest of the people in the buildings and logically would think that there would be someone manning the controls for GLaDOS. I might put in a death scene in the future chapters or I may not, depending on how it fits into the story.

The next chamber presented her with an odd device placed on the ceiling, which she wondered how exactly it was meant to be operated mounted in such a position, and a yellow electrical ball bouncing from the tip of the machine to the floor directly below it. After a few moments, an orange portal opened up.

**“While safety is one of many Enrichment Center goals, the Aperture Science High Energy Pellet, seen to the left of the chamber, can and has caused permanent disabilities, such as vaporization. Please be careful.”**

Okay, so this thing could definitely kill her if she touched it. That was useful information to say the least. She looked around for what she needed to do and found what looked to be a receiver for the pellet ball and aimed a blue portal so that the ball would be able to power whatever that receiver was for. After the pellet went in, the machine made a whirring sound as it came on and the platform near the end of the room began to move.

The next room had the same pellet puzzle again, and the moving platform she just got off in the last room was in this room as well. This time it was moving horizontally instead of vertically, but that didn't make things any harder. The pellet itself was bouncing from the machine and against the wall, leaving a sizable scorch mark there.

**“Warning devices are required on all mobile equipment. However, alarms and flashing hazard lights have been found to agitate the high energy pellet and have therefore been disabled for your safety.”**

Disabling warnings definitely didn't sound safe to her, and the idea of something non-sentient being agitated confused her but didn't distract her from the test. Chell placed a portal where the mark was and watched it as it went through the portals into the receiver on the ceiling. The receiver, like in the last test, powered the moving platform and she placed a portal on the ceiling in order to reach it. It seemed that after completing the task with the pellet, that no more pellets came after that. Chell felt lucky in that regard.

**“Good. Now use the Aperture Science Unstationary Scaffold to reach the chamberlock.”**


	4. Aperture Science Pit of Rancid Smelling Poison

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The first appearance of the pit of neurotoxin. I imagine it smells like a mix of rotting flesh, cigarettes and burning plastic. Maybe some other really disgusting things that can kill you and make you want to throw up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chell is not a doctor, or a scientist of any kind so she probably wouldn't understand a thing about what neurotoxin is, what it's made of, how it affects the brain etc. All that's pretty much important to her at this point is that it smells horrible and it makes you dead really fast.

**“Please note that we have added a consequence for failure. Any contact with the chamber floor will result in an 'unsatisfactory' mark on your official testing record followed by death. Good luck!”**

Chell scoffed a little bit at that warning, thinking that dying was much more problematic than a below average mark on some kind of test. It seemed that now the tests would be able to cause some kind of injury, or death, should she not follow the rules of what she could and couldn't do. Still, as she leaned slightly over the railing to glance as the green pool below she grimaced. It looked like some kind of poison. Again there was the pellet bouncing against the wall indefinitely, as it it didn't seem to care about the damage it was causing to the blank wall. Obviously a non-sentient object like the power ball wouldn't be able to care about any damage it caused to anything around it, she didn't even know why exactly she was thinking about it.

There was a familiar sound of portals opening, somehow she was oddly accustomed to that sound as well, and she looked to the side of the metal landing to see the orange portal right there. It looked glossed over, as if someone tried painting it there but smudged the paint in an obscure fashion, and she aimed the blue portal at a platform at the other side of the room near the machine that deposited the energy pellet.

Through the portal link, she crouched down on the square platform and wrinkled her nose at the smell of the poison lake only a few feet below her. Looking down made her stomach curl and she almost wanted to be sick at seeing how it seemed to seep into the walls and dye it that disgusting greenish-brown color. That definitely doubled the trouble in this room, either she would be “vaporized” by the energy pellet or she would accidentally make a misstep into the lake of poison. Chell wasn't a scientist by any stretch of the word, she had some trouble figuring out what kind of person she actually was, but vaporization sounded like a complicated word for “painful and quick death”. She didn't even know if she could swim, all distant muscle memory relating to that having been lost due to years of not being used, but the fact was is if she did drown in a lake of rancid smelling poison being able to swim would be the least of her worries.

Leaving that aside, she turned to the high energy pellet that was somewhat merrily, or as merrily as an non-sentient thing could be, bouncing from the transmitter machine to the wall with the scorch mark. The mark itself didn't seem to get any bigger or any deeper on the wall, but that wasn't a majorly important fact. Shuffling around and making sure to not actually drop the gun, there were no rules about not dropping it but Chell would rather assume not to do that on purpose, she aimed another blue portal at the aforementioned wall. This redirected the energy pellet so it came out in the orange portal above her head and she nervously ducked, afraid that it would hit her and she would die. It didn't and after a few minutes of frustration and trying to line up the blue portal exactly so she managed to get the pellet into the receptor. The receptor turned on, showing the little moving parts as the electricity distributed itself over the machine and set the scaffold in motion.

**“Very impressive. Please note that any appearance of danger is merely a device to enhance your testing experience.”**

Chell definitely did not like the sounds of that, and it reminded her that the computer or whoever behind it may very well be lying to her again. A part of her still longed to know where the other people were, if there were any humans left that is.


	5. Aperture Science You Really Aren't Helping Me Escape Are You?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> First chapter where I put three chambers into one! Maybe I'll do this for a while or just cut to the amusing bits of it.

After that last chamber that reeked of poison, and her constant fear of misstepping and falling into it, Chell was relieved to see that this new chamber had nothing of the sort. No unusual smells or the buzzing of lasers. It had the same white layout, like the earlier testing rooms she had been in but she still found the metal barricade in the center to be awkward to say the least. Wandering closer she saw the light bouncing around signalling a - what was it called? Emancipate? Incandescent? Incinerate? - Emancipation Grid. So that prevented anything but her and the Gun from crossing over.

**"The Enrichment Centre regrets to inform you that this next test is impossible. Make no attempt to solve it."**

Well Chell didn't exactly have the time to sit around and wait for someone - or something, she had no clue if there were any living human beings left here - to come to her aid. The only sign of life besides her was that monotonous voice that kept interrupting her thoughts and occasionally helping her through the facility. She still refused to allow herself to speak out against whomever it was, feeling it wasn't worth wasting her energy and that there might not even be a reply no matter what she said to it. A scowl graced her face as she looked around for some kind of solution to this weird puzzle, and found that she was so concerned with previously listening and reacting to the voice on the PA system that she didn't notice that a nearby shaft in the ceiling had dropped a Weighted Storage Cube into a lower part of the room.

If there was a cube in this room, there also must be a button somewhere for it to go on. Looking back towards the Emancipation Grid, she saw it in plain view directly ahead of her. The only problem she could see at the moment was, besides the voice trying to talk her out of trying to continue which she opted to ignore, was how to get the Cube across without using the Grid because it would be disintegrated within seconds should she choose that option.

Walking back to the lower edge she saw the Cube, and looking around for the orange portal she could see it and the odd paint-smear effect on a higher stationary platform. She took a few seconds to angle the blue portal correctly and shot it right where the cube was, letting it fall through easily. Jumping through, it took less than a few seconds for her to end up standing on top of the cube. The top of Chell's head was only a few inches apart from the ceiling of the room, and would it not for her Long Fall Boots, she would be concerned about falling from this height. It would have certainly ended in at least a twisted ankle depending on how she fell.

Now was hardly time to think about such mundane things, she needed to find a way out and she wouldn't allow herself to die in such a place. From her elevated position, she could see a small window in the metal barricade that she could easily shoot her blue portal into it and get the cube across safely. So without any further thinking, Chell shot the aforementioned portal through it and it attached right over the set of stairs that would send her to the elevator to the next room. Shoving the cube through was easy enough, and it definitely didn't take a body builder to go through and place it on the button.

 **"Fantastic! You remained resolute and resourceful even in an atmosphere of extreme pessimism."** Chell had already started to head for the elevator by the time the voice responded with that comment and she could distinctly feel as if she was being mocked by it. The last time she knew, machines didn't have the ability to be mocking or sarcastic. Maybe there was hope that there was someone still alive in this hellhole.

\--------

The slightly cold chill of this room was a new shock to her, but at least there was no poison here. Just stories of metallic walls and ceilings. It felt like a prison, and the earlier hope that there was someone still left in here was starting to leave her bit by bit. No human would do this to another person, or at least none that she knew of.

 **"To reiterate [speech slows down] our previous [speech speeds up] warning: This test [garbled audio]-ward momentum."** Something about momentum? Chell had no ideas about what that could mean, but she still had to try and look for the exit. No matter how she looked up, how hard she craned her neck back, she couldn't see it. But she knew it had to be up there somewhere.

Looking down so quickly after looking up for so long was giving her slight vertigo, so she took a minute to get her eyes to focus properly and found the exact spot she was supposed to get to. An orange portal directly in the middle of a spot in the lowest part of the room, but where was she supposed to put her blue one? There were no stairs going up so she solely had to rely on the portals to get her to travel upwards. Walking slowly around the nearby staircase that led down to the first portal, she looked around to find anything that she could attach the other portal to.

Eventually she did find it, a couple panels of white linoleum which conducted her portals well. Chell immediately fired up there, and ran back to her starting point, took a deep breath and jumped down into the other. It felt exhilarating to be going through the air at such speeds, and not having to worry much about it killing her. The journey was short lived while she got to the other side, and while she didn't get fatally injured, she did end up bruising one of her arms on the descent. Only a bruise, nothing worth wasting her time on now.

**"Spectacular. You seem to understand how portals affect forward momentum. Or, to be more precise, how it does not."**

Chell didn't seem this was the greatest time to be learning about science, or to be learning about something other than how to get help, find someone, or find someplace safe to go. Another panel was moving above her and she tried shooting it as it was moving, but it didn't seem to connect - if the Gun making useless clicking noises was any indication. It didn't take long for it to stop and she took advantage of it, shooting the portal expertly and jumping down into the portal below. What she was doing would be considered either stupid or terrifying if she told anyone how fun this part was, but she couldn't imagine finding a trustworthy person to open up about her life in Aperture, or even her life before. The further she was getting, she was beginning to remember some things, happening in little flashes that leave her disoriented and confused.

It took a few minutes of shooting portals and jumping through before she could get up to the exit, and she was so thrilled about the new trick with the gun and momentum that she forgot that she was still effectively trapped in this hellhole.

 **"Momentum, a function of mass and velocity, is conserved through portals. In layman's terms, speedy thing goes in, speedy things goes out."** And there was the exit, wide open for her to walk through. Chell could feel herself dashing towards it, grateful to at least be moving forward to some kind or solace or escape.

\--------

The next room held a high staircase that led to a viewing room of sorts. It overlooked a wide and deep room, the floor of which had been covered by that horrible poison. Chell tensed and scowled at the sight, she had foolishly thought that she was done dealing with that horrible stuff. A few feet above that was a pedestal which contained a Portal gun, almost exactly like the one she had, but this one was turning and at each cardinal point it was firing the orange side to a blue portal. On top of that there was another room directly across from her current position, which had a transmitter and one of those energy pellets, just aimlessly bouncing around the room with no clear purpose. A closer glance at the main area showed a stationary lift at one end of the pedestal and the receiver for the energy pellet.

 **"The Enrichment Centre promises to always provide a safe testing environment. In dangerous environments, the Enrichment Centre promises to always provide useful advice. For instance - the floor here will kill you, try to avoid it."** Chell had already suspected the nature of the deadly poison, just from smell alone it felt lethal. Knowing for sure that it was didn't give her any consolation, but maybe it wasn't meant in that way.

Shooting a blue portal erased the paint-smear on the other side and she could see through it know, but it wasn't until a couple seizing of the portals before she could walk on solid ground without fear of falling in the poison. Right by the edge of this little cavern was a bright red button and that was the only thing there. Pressing it caused the big metal door to move away in the room with the pellet, but the ticking noise over the PA signaled that she had scant few moments before it closed again. It didn't need much convincing for her to shoot it without even aiming, then to go back to the wall and wait for the orange portal to be shot behind her. It was interesting when it was aimed directly at her, as she didn't feel any pain, more a disturbance in the air and then it appeared right behind her.

Chell had to crouch down slightly to avoid being hit by the pellet as she descended the nearby staircase. There was an opening under the staircase where she could wait and plan out where to put the portal as she watched the pellet bounce around the room. She spotted the target spot by the scorch mark up in the room proper, shooting a portal there was easy. Now all she had to do was wait for the pellet to go through and get it into the receiver. Since, apart from the jump with the portals, the journey was straight and there should be no problem. With a hum of electricity, the receiver came to life and activated the elevator which went from the gun pedestal to the wall on the other side. The transmitter stopped producing pellets, so she was safe enough to shoot portals anywhere and wait for the orange portal to connect so she could ride over.

Not entirely knowing why, and scolding herself mentally for it afterwards, she did look down into the lake on the short elevator ride over. It looked less lethal and more outright stomach-churning disgusting. But she grabbed the gun, which recognized itself as an attachment to the version of the gun she already had. There was another button not far away from where the gun attachment was, and she pushed it rather hard, fearing that it was a trick and the room would fill up with poison.

Instead the door directly above opened. Now that she could shoot two portals, it didn't matter which she chose, so she shot orange into the wall where the door just was moments ago, and the blue one where the lift was going back from.

**"The Device has been modified so it can now manufacture two portals at once. As a part of an optional test protocol, we are pleased to present an amusing fact. The Device is now more valuable than the organs and combined incomes of [Subject Hometown Here]."**

Well that was weird. Why was the place she was from get deleted?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm pretty sure I had to rewrite this four or five times. Computer issues lol. If anyone reading this fic could leave a review/comment that would be much appreciated!


End file.
